The Unity of the Person and the Nature of Sin

I said: I shall become wise. The 'I said' here signifies not only the vocalizing, but the disposition of being in such a state as 'no one says: Lord, Lord, unless he be in the Holy Spirit' (Matt 7:21). To say here is to truly confess, to truly say that he serves Him as Lord. And here 'I said': I added this to become wise. The fully spoken example becomes clear; in this, as much as we thought we had wisdom, we did not say: 'I shall become wise.' But now, instead of saying: 'I lack wisdom,' I say: 'I shall become wise; but it has become far from me, beyond what it was.'

We thought it was not at all near to be mine, and for this reason I strove to do all things to receive it now. And when I have done this, it has become far from me. But in reality it has not become far from me, rather to me it appeared to become far, exceeding the distance, a deep depth; who will find it? Instead of: 'one is not finding it.'

Furthermore, you do not say of an ascent: 'do not give your heart' (Deut 6:5); it is indeed ethical. One must take this: the body is controlled by the soul. Therefore, this says: 'do not give your heart' to be controlled by the evil impulses of the body. Let us say, if it ever controls, that the body is able to rise up against the soul through desires, through passions. Do not, therefore, understand this in such a way as to know what he says or what he was saying. His starting point must be examined. This word harms; it is a curse. And if the word is a curse, it is a prayer for evils.

'He who subdues the body and enslaves it' does not allow it to know his heart through investigation. I and my heart have encircled the goal to know and to contemplate and to seek wisdom and judgment. The heart has often already been said to signify the mind. But the mind does not deviate, nor does it fit into a straight line, but it turns in circles. Indeed, even some of those from the outside have said that thoughts are like wheels and turning circles. For when the mind reaches out toward external things and wishes to receive the imagination of the sensible things, it is not about itself, it does not turn about itself. But when it thinks and stands upon itself, it is both the thinking and the thing being thought. For the mind in its activity is always the act of thinking.

It has this property, and it is not the case when it lies upon the external things. What about 'I and my heart'? Each of the many things lying together or being thought of is called the whole. Man consists of soul and body and spirit, as if he says, 'your whole spirit and soul and body,' not saying all other things of the man. But each is a different thing of him, yet the man is all at once.

The apostle has done this also regarding the body, even if he mentioned something intelligible: 'if the whole is an eye, and if the whole is an ear, where is the body?' (Matt 5:29) and he says that each member is by itself, but all together the body. And it is seen in a similar way. The name of the 'vote' here signifies the number. The meanings are many; the many things divide a greatest theory. And one might say 'vote' as if it were a number.

But if someone wishes to take the 'vote' as the thing said: 'and when they were being removed, he brought a vote' (Acts 5:28), the testimony, and thus he desired 'to know wisdom and a vote.' If wisdom is the knowledge of divine and human things and the causes of these, each ought to perceive, and thus the whole knowledge is already decided. And to know the impiety, folly, and confusion of the impious. It is a great thing to know the inferior things, not necessarily to perform them. It is impossible to turn away from evil without having thought it.

On the other hand, we say 'not knowing sin' of the one not sinning, instead of 'he has no experience of sin.' Thus Jesus did not 'know sin,' that is, he was not tested. But he who intends to abstain from evil will know it, because it is bad and because it will bring evil to the one acting, and because 'it brings down unto death' (Prov 5:5) and because it is elective and can be released by us. It does not exist by essence, nor is it produced by the movement of the stars. If, therefore, he knows this folly of the fool, I stand away from it, casting it out. And to know through the impious the joy. This says: if I know who the impious is, and I abstain from him, I know the joy. For the 'because of what' must be heard thus: 'for through law is the knowledge of sin' (Rom 3:20). He who knows the law through it enters into sin, clearly, and also virtue; but the one knows in order to do, the other in order to flee. And confusion and wandering.